Yasso’s…with a mom twist.

Rich and I bought our first house in the spring of 2006. We looked at many houses, but decided on this one that we are living in for a few reasons. One of the big reasons being that the back yard was backed right up to a big forest. We were told this forest was some sort of “nature preserve” and wouldn’t be touched. Besides, much of it was swamp-ish and no one would want to build on it anyway.

Imagine our surprise, when 11 months later, the forest was bought and clear cut for a new housing community. Fantastic. ugh.

Over the next year, they cut down all the trees, marked out all of the lots, and paved the roads. They built 3 houses and just like that…the real estate market crashed. For almost the past year, other than the 3 homes back on the property, the area has sat untouched. This has provided a *perfect* opportunity for me.

You see, the neighborhood has only one access road (about 0.4 miles) and then one big circle(about 0.70 miles). One big, traffic free, freshly paved, almost 3/4 of a mile loop ALL TO MYSELF!! And at only 1/10th of a mile from my driveway to the access road, you really can’t beat it. So until the market picks back up, and my circle is filled with big trucks and gawking construction workers (which will be a fair trade for perhaps finally selling our condo that has been on the market for 17 whole months now, ugggh), I will take full advantage of this land:

Bart says to start the Yasso’s a few months before your marathon, and work your way up to doing ten. I’m 13 weeks out from my marathon, so i figured I’d aim for 3-800’s today.

Oh, and did I mention I’d be running WITH the jog stroller? Yes, 24 lbs of 9 month old + 28 lbs of 2 year old (yeah we are aware of the imbalance, they share clothes already!) + the beast of a stroller = RESISTANCE TRAINING!!

I set Coach Garmin to an interval workout of 800 m run/4:00 rest. I deemed a 4:00 800 (8:00/mile pace) a good starting point for my 800’s with the stroller. The workout went like this:

800#2: 3:41. Ok I knew I was going faster (7:40/mile pace) than the planned 4:00’s, but when I tried to slow down, it just felt awkward. So I just ran. This one kicked my butt.rest (walk) 4 minutes.

800 #3: 3:40 I STRUGGLED on this last one. I was huffing and puffing like I’ve never run a day in my life. I know, I know, 7:40/mile isn’t that fast, but it is when you are working on getting back in shape and pushing 52 lbs of kid + stroller! The last 2/10 of a mile were killer. I kept looking at Garmin hoping it would say I was almost done (mistake! messed with my mind). I wanted to quit so many times but I kept telling myself “YOU ARE DONE AFTER THIS, DON’T STOP!!” So I didn’t stop, until Coach Garmin gave me permission to stop with that obnoxious shrill of a beep. I gave out a primal yell out of exhaustion that even surprised me. The funny part being, the end of the 800 was right in front of the ONLY house in that back part of the development. Their little yappy dog started barking at me and I’m certain someone was peeking out of the blinds thinking “what is that crazy woman DOING out there?”rest (walk) 4 minutes.

800 m (half mile) cool down run home. I was DRIPPING in sweat (only 88% humidity and 80 degrees today, and as you can see in the picture, overcast. It was actually somewhat of a relief!) but felt fantastic.

Workout: DONE! It felt great. The boys seemed to love it. Neither one of them fell asleep! I’m hoping to build up to all 10…with jogging inbetween sets instead of walking, and WITH the jog stroller. It seems to make the whole Yasso thing just a little more kick ass that way 🙂

You are crazy! (but in a good way). I refuse to run with a kid in a stroller. i did a few times when my oldest was young, but now running is all about me. LOL Of course, the fact that my second child refuses to sit in a stroller might have something to do with it.

holy smokes–i haven’t run that fast since high school! i’d never heard of yassos, but i will be following (much more slowly) in your footsteps with trying them while pushing a munchkin. we’ll see how *that* goes… :o)

Hi. I found your blog through “Shut up and Run”. I just read through some of your posts and had to have a good laugh over the gaining weight post. I’m training for my first marathon (just got back into running a few years ago) and I’ve put on at least 5 lbs! sucks, but I should lay off those cheetos! Great posts!

What a great place to run and practice. I just started running a few weeks ago so I’m looking everywhere for inspiration. I do all of my workouts very early in the morning but would love to get a jog stroller.

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Meet Heather

I'm Heather, mom of two, ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist, and an overzealous athlete who cannot focus on a single discipline, so I train for all of them at the same time. When in doubt, I run...and then write about it. Read More…

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